This past Saturday both the men and women were in action in different parts of Texas. The women traveled to Huntsville to play Sam Houston St. Women and the men traveled to San Antonio to play UTSA. The women's game kicked off at 12 noon and with 11 girls in attendance along with Interim Assistant Head Coach Jonathan Holmes. It was an easy line for him to put together.The line up for the Sam Houston St. Women's match:1. Vic, 2. Gigi, 3. Lupe, 4. Ashley, 5. Cari, 9. Alyssa, 10. Baylie, 12. Mel, 13. Camile, 14. Andrea,Reserve: 16. Ivy Since I was driving to San Antonio, Jonathan confirmed the line up with me and from what I saw of the scores. I know that the girls came out firing on all cylinders. The score at the end of the 1st half was UT Dallas 19, SHSU 7. The 2nd half must have looked like the first half, with UT Dallas women running, tackling, supporting each other and basically spoiling anything that Sam Houston might have wanted to do. The Final Score UT Dallas 31, Sam Houston 19. UT Dallas girls scoring Trys, Cari, Baylie, Mel, Alyssa (2). Conversions were made by Alyssa (1 out of 2) and Cari (2 out of 3) Congrats to our ladies, so far this season they are 2 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie, best ever start of any season ever. Also they lead the entire Lone Star Conference with 13 points, the closest club has 8 points. And the girls still have a match remaining. Way to go Ladies.

The men went to San Antonio to play a 5:00pm match with UTSA, with 17 players showing up, my wish list roster had to be revised a bit. This will be the first time we have played UTSA in a league match since our epic meeting in the TRU Division III Championship. And on that night, it was UT Dallas that got the better of UTSA. But like days of the week change, so does the results in game.The line up for UTSA:1. Adam, 2. Josh, 3. Caleb, 4. Chris, 5. Brandon, 6. Will, 7. Precious, 8. Jake, 9. Victor, 10 Edmund, 11. Talhah, 12. Myles, 13. Nicky, 14. Franklin, 15. BrianReserves 16. Wade, 17. Manny The game kicked off a little after 5:00pm and it was UT Dallas on our heels defending the slightly larger UTSA players. It was a battle from the get go, with both sides running and tackling, it was UTSA doing more of the running and UTD doing less of the tackling. The end of the first half score was UTSA 24, UT Dallas 0. The 2nd half started with some explosion from UT Dallas. Roughly 3 minutes into the 2nd half, Victor scored a Try, but the conversion was missed. About 5 minutes later, Wade Aston scored off of a beautiful off load from Brian. This time Brian converted Wade's Try. It looked as if we were on our way to making this an interesting game, but UTSA had other plans. In the closing minutes of the game, with UT Dallas attacking inside our red zone, UTSA was guilty of yet another dangerous tackle, but this time instead of awarding a penalty, the Referee awarded a Penalty Try. On the conversion, Brian did not know that he needed permission from the ref to reset the ball, UTSA knew it and charged it. The ref blew his whistle to end the game, the final score UTSA 53, UT Dallas 17.

Next week the ladies have the weekend off, and the men travel to Nacogdoches to play Stephen F. Austin (SFA) is new to the Lone Star Conference having played in the South West conference and we had a brief look at them at the beginning of the season. They are big and well coached, and should be a good game. Directions will be posted later in the week.

This coming weekend both the men and women of the UT Dallas Rugby Club will be in action in different parts of this great state. The UT Dallas Women travel to Huntsville to play the Sam Houston State Women's Rugby Club, This game kicks off at Noon. I have the address listed by the Sam Houston St. Women as well as an address to the actual field, so use both to get you to the field.

The men travel to San Antonio to play UT San Antonio, this game kicks off at 4:00pm. Like the women, I have 2 addresses plus directions to the field at UTSA. Use this as well as your gps to get you to the field.

This past weekend, the women of UT Dallas took on TCU, Letourneau and Angelo St. in a 4 team Round Robin tournament/league match competition. TCU was a 7's format and up first for the ladies of UT Dallas, we put out a line up of:1. Vic, 2. Camile, 3. Gigi, 9. Alyssa, 10. Ivy, 12. Mel, 13. AndreaComing in at the half: Elaine for Alyssa, Baylie for Ivy, Marie for Andrea The ladies played very well and played hard and took an early lead at which we never gave up. Winning the first game UT Dallas 15, TCU 12. Trys were scored by Mel, Marie and Baylie, no conversions were made. The ladies 2nd game against TCU, the line up was:1. Cari, 2. Camile, 3. Lupe, 9. Elaine, 10. Baylie, 12. Marie, 14. AlexReserves Gigi for Camile, Ashley for Lupe, Alyssa for Elaine, Ivy for Baylie, Mel for Marie, Marie for Alex In the second TCU game, no UT Dallas scores were made, UT Dallas lost 12 to 0. No big deal, this was not a league match and TCU didn't pose as a distraction to the club.

The next match and 1st League Match on the table for the UT Dallas Women was the newly formed Letourneau University Women's Rugby Club. With being a new club in the Lonestar Conference we new that it would be a tough road to hoe and since we weren't on the new side, we thought that we should have fun. The Line up for the Letourneau Match, in 10's format:1. Vic, 2. Camile, 3. Lupe, 4. Ashley, 5. Cari, 9. Alyssa, 10. Ivy, 12. Mel, 13. Marie, 14. Andrea In this match, UT Dallas took off and never looked back, for one of the few times in our young playing times, we was the club with experience. At the end of the first half, the score was UT Dallas 29, Letourneau 7. Both Sides was running, tackling and doing whatever it took in attack or defense. The game went from 22 meter line to 22 meter line. But at some point during this half, the UT Dallas team took control of the game and went on a tear. Scoring another 3 Trys.Scoring Trys in this game was Camile (2), Ashley (1), Alyssa (1), Marie (2), Andrea (3), conversions Alyssa (2), Cari (3).The final score was UT Dallas 55, Letourneau 7

The third match of the day and second league match of the day was against Angelo St. University.The line up was:1. Vic, 2. Camile, 3. Gigi, 4. Ashley, 5. Cari, 9. Alyssa, 10. Ivy, 12. Mel, 13. Marie, 14. AndreaReserves in the second half was Lupe for Gigi, Elaine for Andrea and Baylie in reserve if needed.The ladies played hard and went down 21 to 7 at the half, but in the second half, the UT Dallas Women woke up and went on a scoring tear. They scored 28 points in the second half and gave up 7 points in the final 2 minutes of the game to end up in a 28 to 28 tie.UTD Ladies scoring Trys were Andrea, Marie, Camile, Mel. Conversions Alyssa (4) This was a huge weekend for the UT Dallas Women, in our short program, our club has never started out 2 games undefeated and here we are looking at our first weekend 1 Win, 0 Losses and 1 Draw. This is huge for the ladies and for the coaching staff. I have been involved with the club since it's inception, but now I have more help from Jonathan Holmes as my new Interim Assistant Head Women's Coach, but things are beginning to fall into place and what ever it is, I hope it remains for this season. Thank you girls and Jonathan.

The guys this past weekend took on, UNT in the final friendly match of this young season. We had 20 quality players ready to take the field against UNT and the line up for the first half would be:1. Ryan, 2. Josh, 3. Caleb, 4. Precious, 5. Adam, 6. Manny, 7. Chris, 8. Jake, 9. Victor, 10. Andrew W. 11. Alex, 12. Edmund, 13. Nicky, 14. Octavio, 15. BrianComing in Second half: Brandon for Precious, Precious for Manny, Andrew D. Edmund, Seth for Nicky, Franklin for Octavio, Octavio for Brian. Coming in the third period: Myles for Seth, Nicky for Seth, Edmund for Andrew W, Andrew W. for Victor, Eric B. for Alex. All players played hard and with courage, but UNT was going to be the club that we cannot get over the edge on, due to our performance in practice. Our numbers are and have been beginning to diminish and need to figure out a way to deal with it. If you practice, you play will be a major factor into deciding who plays and who doesn't, but that will be coming into play this week. Without going into exact detail, I will say that the guys played hard and showed moments of brilliance, but in the end UT Dallas lost the game 59 to 7, with the only Try scored by Andrew W. and converted by Andrew W.

Next weekend the girls travel to Huntsville to take on Sam Houston St. in their 3rd league match of the young season. Sam Houston St. is a very good club, but having trouble getting numbers to fill out a team. Also they graduated a number of players that have caused UTD havoc and now the tables have been evened out and we'll see how things go. The match will begin about Noon.

Next weekend, the guys travel to San Antonio to play our first league match of the season and it should be a real cracker of a game. Since the St. Edward's Round Robin Tournament which we lost to UTSA, which didn't mean anything in the league standings, and the first TRU Division III Championships for all the marbles. This will be the first time both clubs meet and since it's the first game of the season, it means a lot in the way both clubs want to start off. Kick off should be about 4:00pm

I should have directions and confirmed times for both matches by the middle of this week. So please stay tuned to this web site for any change, additions or any thing I want to add.

This weekend (10/10/15) both the men and women are in action. The women will be playing in a 4 team round robin at TCU and the men will be playing a friendly match against UNT. The women will be in action at TCU, playing against clubs like TCU, Angelo St. and Letourneau. The match against TCU will be a friendly, and the matches against Angelo St. and Letourneau will be league matches. This will kick off the women's season in fine fashion. TCU is an existing club, but they've had troubles getting numbers, so they've opted to go independent and look for games throughout the year. Angelo St. is in their second season and they hope to continue their win streak against UTD. Letourneau is in their first season and anything could happen. The times and schedule for the UTD women are:10:00 vs TCU (Friendly)11:40 vs Letourneau (League)2:10 vs Angelo St. (League) The address to the TCU pitch is 3400 University Dr., Ft. Worth 76109

The men take the field against UNT in a pre league friendly match. UNT has always been a good opponent and this season I wouldn't expect any less from them. Our guys have been improving from our match against SFA and then our tournament in Austin this past weekend, but this weekend marks the beginning of the starting XV. We will be playing players in different combinations looking for the best of our best. Those that rise to the top will be starting next week in our league opener in San Antonio. The match will kick off at 2:00pm and the address is 1001 Precision Dr., Denton

Looking forward to seeing anyone who wants to come out and support the girls and guys this weekend.

Yesterday, the men and women of UT Dallas Rugby traveled down to Austin to compete in our annual round robin tournament of the young season. Before I begin to review the day of rugby, I’d like to send out a huge thank you out to John Bradshaw and his wife Heather Ball for coming out to take photos of all the games played (John) and bringing out brisket sandwiches (Heather). This was a life savor, since it was the heat and schedule that was beating us more than any of the opponents we played on this day. I would also like to send out a thank you to Michael Shamoun’s parents for bringing out 2 more cases of water which was needed. As of Friday night, we had 10 girls committed to playing, by Saturday morning the numbers had dropped to 8. The girls had traveled to play and borrowing players will have to be part of the game plan. On the guys side of things, I knew we would have roughly 23 players coming and 23 players is what we had. The challenge here would be depth in position during a long day of warm temperatures, and lot of rugby.I’ll begin with the women and their first match of the day was against 2nd yearclub Angelo St (ASU).The lineup:

In this opening game, we experienced a lot of different emotions, we fell behind 5 to 0 to ASU early in the game, but battled back with Halie seeing some space behind the ASU defenders, kicked deep behind them. Then it was a foot race to see who would come up with the ball, but it was guest Brook coming up with the ball and out running the ASU girls into goal. Cari made the conversion to take a half time lead of 7 to 5 over ASU. The second half was pretty much even in terms of both sides moving the ball up and down the field. Running, tackling, passing and kicking, but it was ASU that sealed a victory by running in 3 more trys.

This match featured the return of Rachael in the 10 (Flyhalf) position and the fireworks started. In the past it was SHSU that would have done all the scoring, but not on this afternoon. It was a tryfest by UT Dallas. Scoring Trys in this game was Vic, Andrea two of the veterans on the club, but it was the surprise with Elaine and Cari scoring their first Trys of the year and their carreer. To add to her scoring, Cari converted on 2 more trys. In then end UT Dallas beat SHSU 24 to 15.

This match was played in the heat Austin had to put out, but the girls played hard and did what they could, but it was UTSA that had the numbers today. UT Dallas was blanked out of scoring for the first time today in their match and UTSA managed to run in 4 Trys to win 24 to 0.

In their first game since the SFA match 3 or 4 weeks ago, but having more preparation under their belts than they had against SFA. It was ASU that had our number on this day, beating UT Dallas 24 to 0. Coming for injuries or replacements Brandon for Chris, Chris for Manny, Manny for DanielThe lineup for match 2 (v SMU)

Coming in for injuries or replacements Ryan for Manny, Andrew W. for Kevin Z., Brian moved to Flyhalf and Octavio in at Fullback.This match was a good match, with both sides being equal, but it was SMU taking the lead with good running and a stiff defense keeping UT Dallas out of goal. But it was Andrew Whiteis that found the goal line in the second half. SMU won the match 10 to 5.The lineup for the last match of the day (v UTSA)

Coming in 2nd half would be Michael G. for Ryan, Brandon for Caleb, Chad for Adam, Andrew W. for Victor, Myles for Will.This was a match for the ages, it’s been a couple of years since UT Dallas and UTSA met on the field since our epic state Championship 5 years ago and it seemed that they still hold a grudge about that victory by UT Dallas. The match went on with both clubs defending in each other’s red zone and play was wide open between the 22’s. In the second half UT Dallas finally got on the board with some nifty running by Victor, but it was UTSA winning the game 19 to 5.

On the whole every one of our UT Dallas student athletes competed on the day, many of them played every game, some played out of position and yet they played hard and showed complete confidence in themselves and their team mates. I’m proud of each and every one of them, for playing all day. I was a tough day with some of the injuries we had and lack of numbers we had on the other side. Next week, the girls travel to Ft. Worth to play a Friendly match with TCU and 2 league matches against ASU and LeTourneau University. Their games begin at 10:00am against TCU and I will post the other scheduled kick off times later this week along with an address to TCU. Next week the guys travel to Denton to play UNT in a final Friendly match before our league season begins. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:00pm and I will post the address later this week for families and friends wanting to come to the game. If anyone has any questions, concerns or comments they would like to make, please feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to help with those question or concerns.